Cell-type-specific regulation of genes involved in testicular lipid metabolism: fatty acid-binding proteins, diacylglycerol acyltransferases, and perilipin 2

Male germ cell differentiation entails the synthesis and remodeling of membrane polar lipids and the formation of triacylglycerols (TAGs). This requires fatty acid-binding proteins (FABPs) for intracellular fatty acid traffic, a diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) to catalyze the final step of TAG biosynthesis, and a TAG storage mode. We examined the expression of genes encoding five members of the FABP family and two DGAT proteins, as well as the lipid droplet protein perilipin 2 (PLIN2), during mouse testis development and in specific cells from seminiferous epithelium. Fabp5 expression was distinctive of Sertoli cells and consequently was higher in prepubertal than in adult testis. The expression of Fabp3 increased in testis during postnatal development, associated with the functional differentiation of interstitial cells, but was low in germ cells. Fabp9, together with Fabp12, was prominently expressed in the latter. Their transcripts increased from spermatocytes to spermatids and, interestingly, were highest in spermatid-derived residual bodies (RB). Both Sertoli and germ cells, which produce neutral lipids and store them in lipid droplets, expressed Plin2. Yet, while Dgat1 was detected in Sertoli cells, Dgat2 accumulated in germ cells with a similar pattern of expression as Fabp9. These results correlated with polyunsaturated fatty acid-rich TAG levels also increasing with mouse germ cell differentiation highest in RB, connecting DGAT2 with the biosynthesis of such TAGs. The age- and germ cell type-associated increases in Fabp9, Dgat2, and Plin2 levels are thus functionally related in the last stages of germ cell differentiation.